Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

[File photo] Yemeni Army forces move into the southern city of Zinjibar, Yemen after freeing it from the hands of al-Qaeda-linked militants, September 2011 AP Photo/Yemen Lens

Al-Qaeda media chief killed in Yemen

Ibrahim al-Bana, al-Qaeda’s media chief for the Arabian peninsula, was killed in a US drone strike.

Updated 9.45am

A US AIRSTRIKE has killed the media chief for al-Qaeda’s Yemeni branch along with six other militants, in the second high-profile American missile attack in as many weeks to target the terror group.

The strike, which follows the killing of prominent U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in a similar American missile attack late last month, points to Washington’s growing use of drones to hit al-Qaida militants in Yemen.

The targeted attacks appear to be part of a determined effort to stamp out the threat from the group, known as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which U.S. officials have said is the terror network’s most active and most dangerous branch.

The slain media chief, identified as Egyptian-born Ibrahim al-Bana, was killed along with six other militants in the southeastern province of Shabwa last night, Yemen’s Defense Ministry said in a statement released this morning.

Security officials said an American drone carried out the attack, which was one of five overnight strikes that targeted suspected al-Qaeda positions in Shabwa and the neighboring province of Abyan in Yemen’s largely lawless south.

Officials and tribal elders in the area said the strike followed a meeting of al-Qaeda militants in a house in Azan, a district in Shabwa. A missile hit the house after the militants had already left, but a second strike targeted two sport utility vehicles in which the seven were traveling after the meeting.

The two vehicles were completely destroyed and the men’s bodies were charred, said the officials and the tribal elders speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media. It was not clear whether other participants in the meeting were targeted in separate strikes.

Friday’s missile attack came two weeks after a U.S. drone strike killed al-Awlaki, a gifted Muslim preacher and savvy Internet operator who became a powerful al-Qaeda tool for recruiting in the West. Killed with him was Samir Khan, a Pakistani-American who was a propagandist for al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

AQAP has taken advantage of the political turmoil roiling Yemen, as embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh has been struggling to stay in power in the face of eight months of massive street protests demanding his ouster and the defection to the opposition of key aides and military commanders.

Militants linked to AQAP have taken over several cities in the south, raising fears that they can establish a permanent stronghold in this strategically located nation. Yemen is in the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, on the doorstep of Saudi Arabia and the oil-producing nations of the Gulf. It also overlooks strategic sea routes leading to the Suez Canal.

In a separate development, the security officials said suspected al-Qaida militants have bombed a key, underground gas pipeline that extends from the Balhaf area in Shabwa to an export terminal on the Arabian Sea. The Friday night attack started a massive fire, with columns of flames lighting the nigh sky and seen from miles away.

Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

Close
10 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute J Ven
    Favourite J Ven
    Report
    Nov 11th 2023, 1:55 PM

    Have the cojones and let go the paper pushers, unnecessary managers and automate. In return offer more money and working conditions to doctors and nurses so they won’t strike. If unions revolts, let them strike, if compensations have to be paid, then pay it. This has to be planned and done simultaneously in a surgical way, having a contingency plan. This is the only way to purge the HSE

    318
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute 9QRixo8H
    Favourite 9QRixo8H
    Report
    Nov 11th 2023, 2:12 PM

    @J Ven: to automate will kill jobs, the thing you’re against. Even doctors can be automated, making it more efficient when doing surgeries and where updates can be done instantly rather than have doctors who need to read updates when they have time. Then you’re against unions that help doctors get more pay, but you want doctors to get more pay. Make up your mind Jenny.

    34
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute J Ven
    Favourite J Ven
    Report
    Nov 11th 2023, 7:41 PM

    @9QRixo8H: Automate to get rid of unnecessary paper pushers, pay doctors more, even with automation, they need more staff, and if by some weird situation a doctor has to let go because of Automation which I doubt because SAP can’t prescribe nor operate, then so be it. I’m against useless unions, you don’t need a union to pay people more nowadays, I’m pro doctor, pro efficiency, unions: depend. I hope I was clear Denise.

    30
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Setanta O'Toole
    Favourite Setanta O'Toole
    Report
    Nov 12th 2023, 7:51 PM

    @J Ven: see how long the show stays on the road if you get rid of the ‘paper pushers’ .Or do you think a consultant will be bothered their hole typing their own letters, sourcing patient charts, filing their own prescriptions, making their own appointments, filling out insurance forms, arranging tribunals, multidiscipinary meetings, foi requests etc etc etc. Will you pay the concomitant tax increase that would come with this vague concept of automation, and the tens of thousands people you put on the welfare as a result, or will ya just give out about it in yet another amazing display of ditch hurling?

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Anthony Corbett
    Favourite Anthony Corbett
    Report
    Nov 11th 2023, 2:37 PM

    Its time the unions declared a state of emergency in the HSE. They are too long skirting the issues.

    Significant Scandals
    Bed closures
    Poor recruitment when most needed
    Zero retention initiatives or perks
    Huge waiting lists
    Data breaches
    Staff cannot get paid correctly

    To name a few

    191
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Richard Starling
    Favourite Richard Starling
    Report
    Nov 11th 2023, 3:45 PM

    I don’t see any freeze on the executive or pen pusher sectors (unless I missed something) just on direct healthcare professionals where they are desperately needed.

    150
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Pato
    Favourite Pato
    Report
    Nov 11th 2023, 2:15 PM

    .I agree with J.Ven. I have been in hospital for 5 months now and the waste is staggering. I see the front line staff who, if they are not lazy, are run off their feet
    I never see the paper pushers put their hands are on everything

    155
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Setanta O'Toole
    Favourite Setanta O'Toole
    Report
    Nov 12th 2023, 8:07 PM

    @Pato: sorry for your current situation, hope you are doing ok under the circumstances, but to be fair, you admit you never see the ‘paper pushers’ If so, How are you aware of the work they do/don’t do? You concede some front line staff are lazy and some are run off their feet, is it impossible to consider that this dichotomy might exist with the admin staff aswell, or do you dismiss every single one of them as a waste without being aware of the work they do? Bit unfair, no?

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute
    Favourite
    Report
    Nov 11th 2023, 3:41 PM

    Great to see such open lovely debate and comments on all the articles…

    50
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Peter Byrne
    Favourite Peter Byrne
    Report
    Nov 11th 2023, 5:38 PM

    Great to see everyone knows what they are talking about. Plenty staff in HSE , up almost another 6 000 this year, to around 130,000. I was in for a biopsy yesterday, staff were great nobody under any pressure as it should be. No doubt HSE needs some reorganisation, fewer and bigger hospitals would be a start. Better use of IT and computers , more staff in Community Areas, more step down facilities. A bigger budget the HSE does not need as it is currently round 26 Billion about 25% of government spending

    47
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Joe Kelly
    Favourite Joe Kelly
    Report
    Nov 12th 2023, 4:27 PM

    @Peter Byrne: bigger hospitals have caused the problems we have now. The smaller local hospitals, Patrick dunes, the adelaide, should never have been closed.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Joanne Holland
    Favourite Joanne Holland
    Report
    Nov 11th 2023, 9:48 PM

    Sadly, it seems time for another nurses strike, and I will support every foot on the picket line. In 2019 my mother was in ICU during the nurses strike, Simon Harris was minister for health. I then implored Mr. Harris to review the management and structures of the HSE, having watched them fail my mother in her final days. Many responded, the solution, Slainte Care!! Wait for the reforms, they told me……I’m still waiting. Then and now nurses will continue to give care to those most in need, with one hand tied behind their backs!

    36
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute hans vos
    Favourite hans vos
    Report
    Nov 11th 2023, 10:40 PM

    Makes great sense. Patient’s in corridors without privacy. Hours waiting in the emergency department. Overcrowding and not enough hands-on staff to man / women the ward’s .This government is very good in making the wrong choises.

    30
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute D M
    Favourite D M
    Report
    Nov 12th 2023, 12:35 AM

    They will continue to recruit and recruit more and more cheaper nursing agency staff instead… no sick pay , maternity pay , holiday pay , pension contributions.. so that the top dog non health care worker managers keep getting loaded and richer !

    30
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute David
    Favourite David
    Report
    Nov 11th 2023, 2:32 PM

    sinn fein have NOT ruled out going in to government with the same party that condones murder in Gaza.
    Shame on sinn fein!!!
    Traitors!!!

    41
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Fahey
    Favourite Paul Fahey
    Report
    Nov 11th 2023, 4:48 PM

    @David: where anyone said they condone murder, save SF throughout the 70,80, 90s? Odd, but what about the murder on Oct 7, you haven’t mentioned them, odd that.

    37
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Joe Kelly
    Favourite Joe Kelly
    Report
    Nov 12th 2023, 4:29 PM

    @David: what has this to do with irish hospitals.

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Vincent Wallace
    Favourite Vincent Wallace
    Report
    Nov 12th 2023, 10:14 AM

    Australia and UK thanks us for training them

    11
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute
    Favourite
    Report
    Nov 11th 2023, 7:47 PM

    The media and government in britain are a joke. Peace march, how dare they call for a ceasefire. They were nowhere near a cenotaph. Far right EDL and Tommy Robinson are now legit patriots apparently. Fighting the police like football hooligans is so patriotic like

    14
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Joe Kelly
    Favourite Joe Kelly
    Report
    Nov 12th 2023, 4:33 PM

    Who cares what goes on in Britain? After all they were never short of thugs.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute
    Favourite
    Report
    Nov 12th 2023, 8:09 AM

    I love lamp

    4
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds